Gautam Adani, Chairman of Adani Group.
Credit: PTI Photo
Congress workers ransacked a car transporting an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) to a strong room in Nagpur after polling concluded for the Maharashtra assembly elections, police said.
The police clarified that the EVM in question, which escaped damage in the attack, was not used in polling and it was kept on standby.
The incident took place in the Killa area of Central Nagpur constituency on Wednesday when polling officials were transporting the EVM from booth number 268 to the designated strong room in a car.
An estimated 65 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the Maharashtra assembly elections on Wednesday, where the ruling BJP-led Mahayuti alliance is making a determined bid to retain power and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition is hoping to continue its good showing in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The figures are provisional, election officials said, adding that 61.74 per cent of polling was recorded in the 2019 assembly elections in the state.
Most exit polls on Wednesday predicted victory for the BJP-led alliances in Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly polls while some gave an edge to the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition in the western state.
Axis MyIndia was the only one to predict victory for the Congress-JMM alliance in Jharkhand with 49-59 seats out of 81 as against only 17-27 seats for the BJP-led NDA and three seats for others.
The reason is clear - if Adani is investigated then every link will be connected to Narendra Modi: Congress
"Sanjay Raut is right in saying that 'exit polls are not exact polls' ... So I would like to advise him that, your boat has sunk, Mahayuti government is going to be formed... Mahayuti government is going to be formed one hundred per cent. There has been a track record of two and a half years of Devendra Fadnavis, Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar. I believe people will vote for progress. It is the politics of performance whic
"...Adani Group has brought disrepute to India...This is a very serious matter. The PM of India should come forward and answer this...All the pending matters against Adani should be probed by an investigation agency under Supreme Court monitoring and all the corruption done by him, within and outside the country, should come out before the country and action should be taken against him," says AAP MP Sanjay Singh on US prosecutors charging Gautam Adani and others in alleged Solar Energy contract bribery case
The Jammu and Kashmir Congress on Monday protested in support of the party's demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the allegations of irregularities against the Adani group, and clashed with police at some places.
They also slammed the administration over the ongoing "arbitrary eviction" drive in the Union territory, saying it was great injustice with "landless tillers, small, marginal farmers and the common people".
In Jammu, hundreds of Congress workers, led by senior party leaders Vikar Rasool and working president Raman Bhalla, took out a rally from Shaheedi Chowk to City Chowk near the Life Insurance Corporation and SBI offices.
The BJP on Thursday targeted the Congress over its attack on the central government after US prosecutors charged industrialist Gautam Advani with bribery and fraud, saying all the states mentioned in the indictment were at that time ruled by opposition parties.
BJP's IT department head Amit Malviya also questioned the timing of the development, as it came just before the start of Parliament session and Donald Trump's impending presidency.
This raises several questions, he said. "That the Congress is willing to be a prop in the hands of George Soros and his cabal speaks volumes," Malviya said on X in reply to Congress leader Jairam Ramesh's claim that the indictment vindicates the Congress's demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) investigation into the various "Modani scams".
The AAP is likely to announce the first list of candidates for the Delhi Assembly polls due in February next year, party sources said.
When asked if he would raise the issue of US prosecutors charging Gautam Adani and others in alleged Solar Energy contract bribery case, in Parliament, Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi says, "We are raising this issue. It is my responsibility as LoP, to raise this issue. PM Modi is 100% protecting this man. This man has acquired India's assets through corruption. He provides support to the BJP, it is established. We will repeat this. JPC is our demand but we want that Adani be arrested. But we know that he won't be arrested because the PM of India backs Adani, he is his protector..."
JPC is important, it should be done but now the question is why is Adani not in jail?...American agency has said that he has committed crime in India, he has offered bribes, sold power at inflated prices. PM is not doing anything, he can't do anything. Even if he wants to do something, he can't because he is under the control of Adani...Note it down, he has done a scam of Rs 2000 Crores. But I guarantee you, this man will neither be arrested nor face an investigation because PM is linked to him: Rahul Gandhi
Former BJP leaders Brahm Singh Tanwar, Anil Jha and BB Tyagi as well as former Congress leaders Chaudhry Zubair Ahmad, Veer Dhingan and Sumesh Shokeen who joined AAP recently also included in the list.
"Today, once again Rahul Gandhi held a press conference. Once again, he showed the same behaviour and has put things in the same way that he has been doing. There was nothing new in the PC. He has a few names, ways using which he does PC and tries to level allegations against BJP, PM Modi. I remember that Rahul Gandhi had appeared with the Rafale issue in 2019 in a similar fashion. He had claimed that a big revelation will be made. During the Covid pandemic, he used to do press conference in similar fashion over vaccine. However, he had to apologise before the Supreme Court later," says BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra
"Today, since morning, we have been seeing in the media an issue regarding a company. There is a case against that company in the US. There are allegations and counter-allegations. We clearly believe that as far as the company and the case against it are concerned, the company will issue a statement and defend itself on its own. Law will take its own course."
"I want to ask Rahul Gandhi... the way we used to file case and not just hold press conference... you also file a case, go to the court. Rahul Gandhi, in his PC, said that the Congress party is doing the work of the judiciary too. The mother-son duo is out on bail and they are doing the work of judiciary! Half of them are out on bail and they are doing the work of judiciary!" says BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra
"...In Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, it said the Congress will form the government, but BJP formed the government. So exit polls are just for entertainment," said Shiv Sena UBT leader Anand Dubey.
The leader also spoke on the alleged involvement of NCP-SCP MP Supriya Sule and Maharashtra Congress President Nana Patole in a Bitcoin scam, saying, "90% of people of Maharashtra do not know what is bitcoin. Supriya Sule is claiming that this is not her voice and Nana Patole's voice in the audio clips sounds like a south indian hero...Maharashtra's people talk about the development..."
The Mumbai police on Thursday issued an order prohibiting any assembly of people in 300-metre radius of all the 36 counting centres in the city.
Elections to the 288-member Maharashtra assembly were held on Wednesday and votes will be counted on Saturday.
Mumbai comprises 36 assembly constituencies.
No person, other than an official engaged with the election process or public servant engaged in duty, shall loiter or form any assembly within 300 metres radius from any counting centre, a police official said.
The order is effective from 6 am on November 21 till midnight on November 24, the police said.
On being asked about Mahayuti's CM face, Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde says," All leaders (of Mahayuti) will sit together and decide. There was never a competition among leaders here to be the CM. We want to form govt to do more development work in the next five years."
"The way BJP leader was held distributing money, so, was it note jihad?...Due to fear of losing BJP trying to win elections by distributing money and liquor in Maharashtra...Was it note jihad that Tawde was doing? Was it liquor jihad that Wankhede was doing?" Patole told reporters.
State in-charge Vinod Tawde, State President Dilip Jaiswal, Union Minister Giriraj Singh, Nityanand Rai, both Deputy Chief Ministers of Bihar Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Sinha and other leaders will be present in the meeting.
MVA leaders including Shiv Sena-UBT's Sanjay Raut and Anil Desai, NCP-SCP leader Jayant Patil and Congress's Balasaheb Thorat took part in the meeting
As per Verma, "In the meeting, Jitu Patwari stated before the senior leaders of the party that if he needs the guidance of all leaders to be able to win the next Lok Sabha and state elections...All is well."
"Voter turnout in the second phase of state elections has been 68.95%. The strong rooms of all the Assembly constituencies have been sealed. The scrutiny has been done...There has been no recommendation for repoll in any of the constituencies. Combining both phases, the voter turnout is 67.74%... The final voting percentage will be declared on counting day, combining the votes of the postal ballot also..." said Jharkhand Chief Electoral Officer, K Ravi Kumar
BJP leaders and workers held a massive protest here against AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, seeking his response on the alleged use of "extravagant luxurious items" to renovate the official bungalow earlier occupied by him as Delhi chief minister.
The ruling AAP responded, saying the BJP's theatrics and drama stem from their fear of losing the elections in Delhi. "Their true agenda is to dismantle the free electricity scheme and hand over power plants to Adani, who will then charge consumers four times the rate, just as seen in BJP-ruled states," the party said.
Several protesters, including Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, gathered near Kejriwal's current residence on Feroz Shah Road and were detained while trying to dismantle police barricades and move ahead.
Police said the BJP leaders and workers detained by them were released later.
Addressing the protesters, Sachdeva alleged that luxurious sanitary fittings and wash basins at the 6, Flagstaff Road bungalow, earlier occupied by Kejriwal, were not provided by the PWD and questioned the former chief minister about their source.
Several BJP MPs, including Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, Manoj Tiwari, Yogender Chandolia and Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Vijendra Gupta and former Delhi minister Kailash Gahlot took part in the protest.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Thursday handed over a memorandum to the Election Commission demanding repolling in 52 booths of Meerapur and arrest of a policeman who took out a revolver and threatened the voters.
SP state president Shyam Lal Pal gave the memorandum to Uttar Pradesh's chief electoral officer here, a party statement said.
The SP has demanded that repoll should be held at 52 polling booths in the Meerapur assembly constituency. It also demanded the arrest of SHO, Kakaroli, Rajiv Sharma, who, the party alleged, threatened to kill the voters by pointing a revolver at them to prevent them from voting, it said.
The services of Sharma should be terminated and all the other guilty police personnel including Inspector Bablu Kumar, H N Singh, SHO Qutubsher, Inspector Mahavir Chauhan, Women Police Station In-charge Sangeeta Chauhan, SI Anil Kumar Tomar, Sunil Kasana, Dharmendra Kumar and Inspector Bulandshahr Premchandra Sharma should be suspended with immediate effect, it demanded.
The bypolls on nine seats of the state were held on Wednesday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is facing a shortage of its own leaders as six out of the 11 candidates named in its first list for Delhi Assembly polls are "turncoats" who switched to AAP from the BJP and Congress recently.
The AAP announced its first list for the Assembly elections likely to be held early next year on Thursday, replacing three sitting MLAs and fielding six leaders who recently switched sides from rival parties.
AAP became the first party to release candidates' names for the elections to the 70-member Delhi Assembly.
Claiming that the list reflects a lack of confidence within the ruling party, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said, "The first list doesn't name the chief minister, Cabinet ministers or the other prominent leaders who work closely with the government. If AAP wants to win with 'pawns', this list shows its likely fate in Delhi."
Sachdeva also claimed that internal rebellion in AAP would soon become evident to the voters of Delhi.
Announcing the first list of 11 candidates at a presser, AAP minister Gopal Rai rebutted the claims that outsiders who recently joined the party were given tickets at the cost of AAP leaders.
"The names were announced after a meeting of the AAP's political affairs committee headed by our national convenor Arvind Kejriwal," Rai said.
Rai also said the tickets were allotted strictly based on performance, surveys, and public opinion, as promised by Kejriwal.
"We are concerned about the news of Adani Group, who have been sending a proposal to buy 1,000 acres of land around Gandhamardhan (hills). Gandhamardhan is a holy mountain for the local population. They have already bought land of 100 acres but the government has not come up with any explanation. In the backdrop of that the allegations against the group add more fuel to the fire. What is the requirement for the Adani Group to buy land around Gandhamardhan?" BJD leader Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo said.
National Medicos Organisation Bharat letter
Credit: X/PTI